I am on the hunt for a coffee shop that I can hangout in and read as well as enjoy the atmosphere of a quaint coffee shop where the ambiance equals the coffee and the people are friendly...these are the adventures of my journey. :)

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Starbucks on Tudor and C street

yes, another starbucks...they are everywhere you know. I can't afford their specialty espresso drinks anymore so went for the drip and a donut, total cost $3.50. I had the Thanksgiving blend, very tasty but I have a bit of a cold so it just tasted good. They also had samples of french pressed christmas blend...also yummy and better than the thanksgiving blend but again one was drip so not a fair comparison. the donut was a old-fashioned chocolate...i really like the old-fashioned donut and the one that looks like a tractor tire...whats the name of that one....hhmmm

this is an ok starbucks, it was pretty busy, there was only one seat available when i walked in and it was a four seater. i always feel bad going in by myself and taking a four top, but there is no waitress so i wasn't stealing tips or anything, but still i feel bad. there was a mix of christmas and top 40's hits playing. i was right under a speaker so it sounded louder i am sure to me than others in there. there were lots of folks working on homework or work with headphones on and those without were talking one couple was engaged in conversation with another lady, sitting in a comfy chair and they were at a table. she was telling them that she came up from the south east of "america" (lower 48) just for change. wow! i thought...i'll spare you the rest of that thought....anyway her and her 19 year old daughter planned a backpacking ferry trip to south east alaska this summer...sounded fun. i really wasn't trying to listen in she was just one of those loud talkers, i am sure everyone knows one of them and if you don't, you probably are one of them. =D anyway, as people came in i always looked to see if i could move to another open table to give room for them but there never was...i was reading thomas merton and this was the passage, (talking of being alone with God) "'blacking out'...without an interior vocation, simply enters into an artificial darkness of his own making. he is not alone with God, but alone with himself. he is not in the presence of the Transcendent One, but of an idol: his own complacent identity. he becomes immersed and lost in himself." so as i read this, i resigned in myself to offer a seat to anyone who wanted to come in and sit. to which someone did...divine encounter perhaps.

jerry was his name, three kids all living in the lower 48, "america" as i call it. we never got to why he was up here alone. but we did talk about Jesus and the church and life in general. good conversation. i ended up inviting him to thanksgiving at the church. sort of breaking the rule maybe but if we can't bend the rule than it should be broken and its not so much a rule as it is "guidelines" and "comfortability" in place of God's love. love enough.